The
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the REDRESS Trust
submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human
Rights in the case of Abdennacer Naït-Liman against Switzerland. The
case concerns a civil remedy for compensation against the former
Interior Minister of Tunisia brought by a resident of Switzerland.

In
April 1992, while living in Italy, Mr Naït-Liman was arrested and
handed over to the Tunisian authorities.
Over a period of 40 days he was arbitrarily
detained and subjected to torture in the Ministry of Interior
building in Tunis. He later fled to Switzerland where he was granted
refugee status in 1995.

In 2001 Mr Naït-Liman
learned that Tunisia’s former Minister of the
Interior, who he alleged was responsible for the torture, was
hospitalised in Geneva. Mr Naït-Liman
filed a criminal complaint against the former minister, but he was
not apprehended before he left Swiss territory. Mr Naït-Liman
later brought a civil claim for damages in Switzerland against the
former minister and the State of Tunisia, however the Swiss Federal
Court (on appeal) found that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the
claim.

Following the refusal of the Swiss
courts to examine his claim, Mr Naït-Liman
filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights alleging
that Switzerland had violated his right of access to a court under
Article 6 of the European Convention. REDRESS and the World
Organisation Against Torture were granted leave to intervene in the
proceedings. The organisations submitted written comments to the
Court addressing states’ obligations to provide an applicant with
access to a court for allegations of torture committed abroad where
there is no other reasonable means of redress and the question of
immunity of a former official.